Unilever’s digital ad ban threat is long overdue
As Unilever threatens to pull its entire ad spend for Google and Facebook, Dan Machen argues it’s high time we all take collective responsibility for the brand safety minefield that is the internet.
Imagine you’re an executive at Google, or Facebook. What keeps you awake at night?
Political meddling? Extreme content? Messenger aimed at children – or a $12Bn global advertiser putting you on notice?
The answer should be all of the above. Sadly, with a focus on shareholder value vs. platform values, it’s probably the latter.
Hear hear, the point about not encouraging young children onto social media is much needed. There is a very good reason to not have children under 13 on Facebook (as per Facebooks own rules) – probably the politest way to summarise them is “predators exist”.
One prediction for the next couple of years is that a brand will badly shoot itself in the foot for encouraging kids onto social media/something tragic happening to one of those kids.
The video example you are using is one I created for a piece around brand safety and it highlighted News Corp, not Facebook and Google.
If we are going to take brand safety seriously, it will need a broader view including publishers such News Corp publications or The Daily Mail, who’s content can be just as toxic.
Hey Nic,
I’ve replaced the video with a related content link to your piece so our readers can check it out there.
Thanks!
Josie
Opinion and features editor